Page 28 of Bullets and Blood
Nix placed a kiss on his cheek, and Lance turned his head to take more.“So would I.If I was lucky, I’d break my neck and sever my spinal column, and that would be that.Most likely, I’d break bones, and I’d starve to almost death until someone found me and fed me blood.”
“Or they’d think you dead and bury you alive.”His aunt had done that to at least one blooded vampire who’d crossed her.Their body would be in hibernation until they were eventually dug up and fed.How long had it taken them to stop screaming after the final nail was hammered in?
“Thanks for the new nightmare.”Nix took back the wine and finished the glass.He licked his lip.“I need to ask you this...”
“And I’m not going to like it.”
Nix shook his head.“Promise me that if you have to take me in, if we end up with no other options, you make sure I’m properly dead.You’ll get your fangs, but I won’t get the pain.Please.”
Lance kissed Nix’s shoulder.“You really need to stop thinking of ways to die.”
“I can’t unless you’re distracting me, tricking me into thinking there might be a chance.”
“Is it working?”
“Sometimes.”Nix smiled, but it was a small and sad thing.
Lance wanted to see his grin again.“Then I’ll do a better job of it.”
Lance moved behind Nix and kissed his way along his shoulder and up his neck to his pulse.For a heartbeat, the urge to bite filled him as though his body knew what it should be.Nix jerked away as though stung.
“I thought vampires like to be bitten.”
“I don’t.”
“Should I ask why?”The sun spread gold on the ocean.He didn’t want the truce to end.They couldn’t go back to being blood enemies.They couldn’t remain lovers.He didn’t know what would happen in nine days.“There is no choice in my family.It happens no matter how much you argue.”
Lance swept Nix’s hair aside and kissed the back of his neck.“You would’ve remained unblooded if given a choice?”
“Yeah.”He sighed.“You’re still human.You can buy a new ID, walk away, and have a life.”
“That’s not what happens.No one walks away in my family.”Lance’s hand snuck around Nix’s waist until his fingers brushed Nix’s stiffening dick.“My aunt finds uses for everyone, not all of them pleasant.”
“Run with me, we’ll find Zinnia, and she can blood you.”
Lance closed his eyes, wanting to believe that was even possible.
Nix turned and kissed him as though desperate.“Yes?”
“Is that a plan or dream?”It was better than dying, wasn’t it?
“It could be both.”
ChapterEighteen
Nix drove the car.It had been a while, but it was nice to pretend life was normal.He wanted to squeeze every drop until the illusion ran dry.He took the back roads, narrow roads that cross-crossed the region barely wide enough for two cars to pass.He drove too fast but didn’t care.
As much as Nix didn’t want to admit it out loud, he was enjoying playing the tourist couple.Ridiculous because they were neither tourists nor a couple.But when he looked at Lance, he didn’t like the way something softened within him as though all the careful walls he’d built were made of nothing more than sand, and they were disintegrating under the first wave.
For the first time in his life, he wondered what it would be like to eventually age, to lose his blood hunger and die in his sleep instead of dying violently the way he’d always expected.To have lived a life with someone who knew not just the bits that were suitable for public consumption but the horror as well.Someone like Lance.Living that long was such an absurd idea that he couldn’t really imagine himself being old or happy.
Lance gripped the door as a ute went by.“Can you not flirt with death while I’m in the car?If you crash, the insurance is under my name.”
Nix tossed him a grin.“I want to show you something.A dream that could be a plan.”
He turned left, kicking up gravel, and then stopped at a gate that had seen better days.Unlike the other wineries that were open for tastings and lunch, this one was closed.A weathered for sale sign hung off the gate.
“It’s not open.”
